This Guide was created as a simplified method to Overclocking Bulldozer and Piledriver CPU's. I've listed the most important settings to change in order to reach stability, in order to take the guess work out.
FSB Overclocking is not discussed, as it's not required with a Black Edition CPU. **But if you know about FSB Overclocking, you can just use what you learn here, and apply it to that method.

1. Does not work on AMD Bulldozer processors. Fixed in gwnum 27.5 (there will not be a prime95 27.5).
2. Length 1280K FFT crashes on Pentium 4s with 512K L2 cache or less. Fixed in 27.6.
3. Hyperthread detection is not working properly. Fixed in 27.6.
4. The 6K 2^N-1 and 8K, 10K, 12K, 16K 2^N+1 AVX FFTs are missing. Fixed in 27.6.
5. Some exponents above 536 million generate roundoff errors and incorrect results. Fixed in 27.6.
6. FFT crossover points need retuning. Many can be more aggressive, but a few need to be more conservative. Fixed in 27.6.

CPU/NB Current Capability - Sets the Maximum Current Support. Recommended 130%Note: Raising the Maximum Current Support does not make the CPU draw more Current. It just allows it to scale properly with voltage, to prevent Overvolting. Watts = Volts x Amps

Whether you are using a closed loop water cooler or air cooling, here are some trick to lower temps even more.

You can use the Stock CPU Cooler fan, with some double sided foam tape and either stick the fan to the case, or stick it to the Close Loop Cooler block, so that it is positioned blowing down over the VRM heatsink.
Warning: Spoiler!(Click to show)

Another way to lower Socket and VRM Temps is to install a fan behind the motherboard so that it is blowing on CPU Socket. All the components link at the socket, so if you can move heat from it, it will help with overall cooling.

It seems that the LLC functions on some of the M5A97 Motherboards does not function as intended.
If you run into stability issues and strange voltages using LLC, it's recommended to leave it set to Auto.

HTT/CPUNB Speeds - Linking these speeds when FSB Overclocking has shown performance increases. The suggested range is 2400-2500Mhz for both. (If possible, linking the DRAM speed in this range will also increase performance)

PCIe - Manually set to 100Mhz

Other than that, the settings for NB,HT Link, CPU, DRAM, will all be the same as when Multiplier Overclocking.

With Turbo Enabled, increasing the FSB also increases the Turbo Frequency

With Offset Voltage Mode you can fully utilize C'n'C and APM Mode

I recommend to keep the offset voltages to Auto with the "+" using Ultra LLC on the CPU and Auto LLC on the CPU/NB.

If you are going for an extreme difference between stock frequency and Turbo frequency, then you should increase the CPU Offset Voltage to CompensateExample: 4.6Ghz with a Turbo of 5.6Ghz you might need an offset of +0.15v

The higher you raise the FSB, the higher the Auto CPU and CPU/NB voltage will be set.

As you can see from my pictures, for my system the best FSB speed was 233. This allowed me to run my ram near my spec of 1866Mhz and also allows me to stay within my thermal limits when Turbo engages.

The actual turbo listed is not what it will go to. The Turbo listed is the highest level of Turbo - on an FX8350 that would be 4.2Ghz, so a Multiplier of 21. The normal turbo that will run all 8 cores is 4.1Ghz so a Multiplier of 20.5, which will let me run 4.776Ghz with a 233FSB.
Under a heavy load, the CPU will cycle between my set CPU Ratio and the Turbo Speed to run cooler. Or it will just stay at the set CPU Ratio - which is ~4.5Ghz

So using this method I will have a 17% increase in Single Threaded Performance and a 12.5% increase in Multithreaded Performance.
With the power saving features I idle at 68W. (Full System)
At full load 280W which is the same as a Manual 4.5Ghz Overclock.

Nice guide, though I seen on the ROG site that CPU and PCIe Spread Spectrum should be disabled. Unless I am misinterpreting something.

From the site:

Thanks for that.

I researched it a bit more and found you are exactly right about the Spread Spectrum.

The only reason to have it on is if you live in an area with high amounts of EMI.
The reason to have it disabled, is that while overclocking it can accidentially register a clock cycle as EMI, causing a BSOD or freeze.

I couldn't get any kind of stability at any voltage & clock whatsoever.
I restored optimized defaults & followed your steps and VIOLA! some stability
Now running 4.2GHz at stock voltage, which happens to be 1.3875v, & CPU/NB is set to 1.2v
Also note that I've set APM & CPU spread spectrum both on Auto.

I couldn't get any kind of stability at any voltage & clock whatsoever.
I restored optimized defaults & followed your steps and VIOLA! some stability
Now running 4.2GHz at stock voltage, which happens to be 1.3875v, & CPU/NB is set to 1.2v
Also note that I've set APM & CPU spread spectrum both on Auto.

Did a 10min OCCT run;

Is this graph okay?

Nice, glad it's working for you.

For CPU Spread Spectrum, I had to do an update, because it can effect higher overclocks if it's enabled, so for that I'd recommend to Disable it.

Your graph does look a bit strange. From 1 minute to 5 minutes is the only time the CPU is at 100%, otherwise it's showing near 0% usage for the rest of the time.
If you are using Ultra LLC for the CPU and it's increasing the voltage above what you have set (as shown by the graph) then you can lower it to High LLC. It's best to have it compensate just enough so the voltage barely changes under load. If the voltage increases, then your LLC is set too high.

Also the way it's listing your CPU seems off. It seems to show that you have Turbo Enabled with a higher CPU Ratio set. If you have an Overclock set, with Turbo Enabled, then the CPU will run at 4.1Ghz under load, even if you have the CPU set higher (4.2Ghz)Edited by ComputerRestore - 1/17/13 at 6:59am

Your graph does look a bit strange. From 1 minute to 5 minutes is the only time the CPU is at 100%, otherwise it's showing near 0% usage for the rest of the time.

Actually, those are Idle periods. 1 min at start & 5 min at end. I thought those minutes would be excluded from the time I set

Quote:

If you are using Ultra LLC for the CPU and it's increasing the voltage above what you have set (as shown by the graph) then you can lower it to High LLC. It's best to have it compensate just enough so the voltage barely changes under load. If the voltage increases, then your LLC is set too high.

Also the way it's listing your CPU seems off. It seems to show that you have Turbo Enabled with a higher CPU Ratio set. If you have an Overclock set, with Turbo Enabled, then the CPU will run at 4.1Ghz under load, even if you have the CPU set higher (4.2Ghz)

LLC is enabled. That's all I can do on my budget board.
Also, TurboCore is disabled.Edited by Ashura - 2/9/13 at 3:52am